year's end

it's the last day of the year, and what a year it's been. so full of old and new - friends, jobs, routines, habits, ways of thinking. a year of big changes for a creature of habit like me. i can't wait to see what wonders the next year will hold.

best wishes to you and yours for a happy, healthy, and amazing new year.

all is bright

a christmas eve gift from the little girl, fashioned by her own hands. it's a centerpiece, she tells me. no, it's a treasure, i think.

merry christmas to all and to all a good night. 

all is calm

a stormy day spent inside, quietly baking and wrapping, puttering, drinking chai and listening to choral christmas music. as much as i truly love being with family and friends at christmas time, peace-filled days like today stay etched in my soul.

inconceivable

how is it possible that i am still christmas shopping six days before the holiday? this year i have more time and less money, more creative ideas and less people to buy for. i began this task in september. in my mind, all that equates to less shopping. then why didn't i just finish this weeks ago?!?

holiday musings

cozy and warm this stormy winter night, a week before christmas. even though i'm behind with my plans and i'm rushed with self-imposed deadlines, tonight i'm feeling so thankful for life the way it is right now. 

comes the snow

every year on this day i am driven to get out one final time with the camera. for tomorrow promises snow. tomorrow the barren late-autumn landscape will be transformed to winter white and will likely stay that way for too many months to come.

winter brings its own kind of muffled, pristine beauty with mounds of white upon white and dark branches on brilliant or muted or star-studded skies. but, for me, color and interest are hard to come by in winter. inside always looks better to me than outdoors. more color. more contrast. more going on.
but for now, for today, it's frosty and still, with perfect glassy ice on lakes and ponds, with crackling air as branches creak in the chill, with gray banks of threatening clouds looming overhead. my eye, and my camera lens, can see things today that will soon be gone too long with tomorrow's snow.